A Thrive Capital-backed cannabis tech company handling $1.1 billion in annual orders is bringing cashless payments, customer data, and the 'shopping cart' feature to online sales

• Much of the cannabis industry still operates on cash, emails, and phone calls.
• Cannabis tech startup LeafLink is changing that by creating a one-stop-shop for wholesale buyers and sellers online.
• LeafLink said it handles 19% of all wholesale cannabis transactions in the US.
• Cofounder and CEO, Ryan Smith, explains how wholesalers are making their orders safer and easier.
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Most transactions in the cannabis industry still operate on cash, emails, and phone calls, because traditional banks and B2B companies are often reluctant to engage in business that's still illegal in some states.

Even more old-school: most cannabis companies were still managing orders through text message in 2016 when Ryan Smith and Zach Silverman launched their wholesale cannabis marketplace, LeafLink.

"We thought this was crazy. Clearly the text messaging, emails, and phone calls are carryovers from pre-legal times," Smith told Business Insider. With 30 to 50 supplier relationships to manage at a time, these out-dated systems made it difficult to track what products sold well and what lines required increased production.

LeafLink set out to centralize the market with software that allows buyers to order inventory in one online cart - much like the shopping cart feature used in most online stores today. Sellers can also manage orders, log customer relationship management (CRM) on their phones, and track the lifecycle of sample requests when they visit shops.

LeafLink said it currently handles 19% of all wholesale cannabis transactions in the US and in 2019 facilitated $1.1 billion in orders, with nearly one order per minute. Since launch, the company has raised $51 million and is backed by Thrive Capital, the VC firm founded by Josh Kushner.

The company also launched a cashless payments feature, LeafLink Financial, in five markets, making it more secure for businesses to operate on credit.

Josh Best is a purchasing manager at Medicine Man, a marijuana cultivation and dispensary company. He orders for five different dispensaries and he said he uses LeafLink for about 90% of his orders. "There are a lot of orders to keep track of and having them all on one platform has really helped with day-to-day operations," he told Business Insider.

Best still has to email or call-in his orders from companies that are not on the platform, but LeafLink helps him discover new products. "Each of our locations is unique and may have a different product mix, so having access to so many companies I may not have heard of yet allows me to request samples and get in touch with them," he said.

Rachel Belavic is the vice president of sales for Mary's Medicinals, a company that makes THC and CBD products, and she said the company uses LeafLink for almost all of its orders. "We have found that many accounts appreciate that LeafLink offers them a one-stop-shop," she told Business Insider.

Smith said he looks forward to the day the federal government provides more guidance around financial regulations in the cannabis industry. "When companies in our space are given access openly to financial institutions, that's pretty close to de facto legalization," he said.